A man. A tiger. A tornado. Jared Montaine owns a big cat rescue in Florida and faces financial pressures, getting over his ex-wife, and the challenge of suburbia creeping ever closer to his enclave for the animals. But when a tornado wrecks part of the refuge, Jared's worst fear comes to life: his Siberian tiger, Sultan, escapes. It's a big cat handler’s nightmare: a tiger on the loose, confused, lost -- and hungry. Jared races against the police, the media, and the hysterical public, all of whom are clamoring for the tiger's hide. He must re-capture Sultan before the cat is killed -- by traffic, by SWAT, or by a civilian who just wants to shoot a tiger. With fellow wildlife handlers at his side, Jared fights desperately to find and capture Sultan before the tiger injures or kills a human. Because that would lead to his worst nightmare -- having to kill the tiger he hand-raised from a cub. Jared’s commitment is tested -- to his animals, his refuge, and his belief that saving the life of even one tiger is worth losing everything.

The Tiger Whisperer

He smelled humans, too, but that didn’t bother him. He wasn’t afraid of humans.


He stretched, raised his front paws ten feet off the ground, and scratched his long claws into an oak tree, shredding the bark with sharp jerks of his powerful legs. He scent-marked the tree as well with urine. Sultan trotted out, eyes sharp in the shadows, his broad feet making no noise on the damp ground.


Ten minutes later, Hector Lopez stirred in his bed. Outside, his four chickens squawked in their small pen next to his trailer. The third-of a bottle of Jack Daniels in his system prodded him back to sleep; he never heard the birds’ cries of distress and alarm.


Chapter 24